A BLOG OF SORTS FROM CHRIS COOKE
March 2026 Updates
Litigation Festival
I made a bit of a Freudian slip when using Google search to double check something for yesterday’s CMU Daily, which didn’t help me with my fact checking, but did give me a good idea. I mean, I’m sure the Dua Lipa-curated London Literature Festival will be great and all, but I think I’d be even more excited about a Dua Lipa-hosted London Litigation Festival.
Live Comedy Day
This Wednesday is Live Comedy Day, celebrating all things live comedy, and putting the spotlight on the live comedy sector. It’s part of efforts by the Live Comedy Association to get policymakers and funders to take comedy more seriously. Over on ThisWeek Culture, I’ve done an interview with Geoff Rowe, who is producing Live Comedy Day, all about what we can expect and the LCA’s wider campaigning
Cox ruling
If you are planning on reading my excellent 2010 law degree dissertation on ‘authorising and contributory copyright infringement in the context of music piracy’ (anyone?), unfortunately it’s now majorly out of data when it comes to the US perspective. But don’t worry, insert this CMU article as a final chapter, and all will be good.
Real Deal
Thanks to everyone who joined us at the first MMF Real Deal Day on Monday talking all things record deals, distribution deals and release strategies. I’ll be back at PPL HQ on Monday to co-host the next edition, looking at the ins and outs of music publishing, and the respective role of publishers, rights administrators and collecting societies. Hope to see some of you there.
Chance v Pat ruling
I think I’ll be adding this quote from Pat The Manager’s lawyer to my artist management deal slides: “the message to music managers is clear – get it in writing”. Here’s my report on last week’s jury decision in the legal battle between Chance The Rapper and his former manager, where a key dispute was whether their unwritten management agreement included a sunset clause.
Updating my slides
Just putting the final touches to my slides for tomorrow’s MMF Real Deal training workshop on record deals and release strategies. I’ve updated the revenue stats with the 2025 figures IFPI published this week – but do I now need to double check if any of these digital platforms have changed their logos since I last used these slides? Or did we manage to get a global ban on digital platforms changing their logos?
Me (circa 1996)
While going through the ThreeWeeks 1996 file earlier this week I found these photos of me from around about that time. Given the headshots I send to conferences I’m speaking at are now nearly ten years old, rather than getting a new up-to-date photo taken, maybe I should just start sending them these instead?
Folk Expo Artist Day
Another great FAC Artist Day today as part of English Folk Expo at Band On The Wall, mainly thanks to the brilliant insights provided by our guest artists, Katherine Priddy and Emily Portman. Thanks to the Folk Expo team for making this special edition of the Artist Day happen once again!
More events!
I’m now in Manchester ready for the FAC Artist Day that is happening as part of English Folk Expo tomorrow at Band On The Wall. Then I’ll be popping down to Holmes Chapel before heading back to London ahead of the first MMF Real Deal day on Monday, putting the spotlight on label and distribution deals. So busy busy. Links and info for both events here.
I’m in Liverpool
First visit to ICMP’s Liverpool campus – and the sun has come out to celebrate. I’m here to talk music, copyright and AI with the students. Hopefully today’s government AI statement doesn’t necessitate a major rework of my lecture. The statement will be mainly waffle right, beyond dropping the EU-style TDM exception? Obviously I’d prefer some clarity and a solid plan, but in the context of today’s lecture, meaningless waffle is fine.
ThreeWeeks 2026
ThreeWeeks will be covering the Edinburgh Festival for the 30th time this August. I’ve been going through my ThreeWeeks 1996 file and found this unpublished four-page pilot edition I forgot we ever made – so technically we covered the 1995 Fringe too, just well after it was over! If you’re heading to the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe – tell us about your show or apply to join our review team here.
Triple event week
It’s a triple event week: tomorrow I’m delivering a metadata session for the Help Musicians Business Skills programme; then it’s the Council Of Music Makers Fix Streaming Webinar; and on Friday it’s an FAC Artist Day with English Folk Expo in Manchester. Links and stuff for all them here.
Qualified?
One of the universities where I regularly guest lecture emailed this week saying they “don’t appear to have a qualification on file” for me. I don’t know what that means, but it prompted me to see if I could find certificates for either of my degrees. I could not, but I did find this. Grade two guitar covers all my copyright lecturing, right?
Controversial opinions
Did I mention (yeah, I know I did) this Q&A I did with the team at Jaybird Communications earlier this month, full of controversial opinions? Well, at least one controversial opinion. Apparently. Punctuation-based of course.
Not a holiday
But the thing is, Team Holiday Inn Express, I’m not on a holiday – is there a separate Trip To Co-host A Music Careers Day Inn Express I’m meant to be staying in? Anyway, Derry was fun, I’m now back in London (very nearly).
I’m in Derry
A great day in Derry for a Pathways Into Music Careers event at North West Regional College. Phil and I were joined by five brilliant guests who discussed their music career pathways, and then offered lots of valuable tips and advice. And the sun even came out, albeit briefly!
This week’s TW:Backstage
It’s this week’s culture business updates on TW Culture: a new organisation has launched seeking to represent the wider comedy industry; plus 10,000 authors publish an ’empty book’ in protest over proposed copyright exceptions for AI.
ThreeWeeks 2026
This August, ThreeWeeks will be covering the Edinburgh Festival for the 30th time. Not sure how we got to year 30 quite so soon, but there you go. If you are performing at the Fringe this year – or know someone who is performing – here’s some info on how to make sure shows are on our radar.
Get it written down!
Given how many projects I’ve worked on over the years with no written contract in place, I’ve always felt like a bit of a hypocrite in MMF training sessions when I advise managers to have written agreements in place with their clients – probably not on day one, but relatively early on. But hypocrite or not, here’s a news story that backs up my advice.
Pass the mic
I did an interview about my favourite subject – me. Actually, maybe my second favourite subject, after copyright. Or third favourite subject, after copyright and streaming. Actually, come to think of it, probably my 47th favourite subject. But you should still read it.
CMM Fix Streaming
As you probably know, one of my hats is as an advisor to the Council Of Music Makers – later this month we are running a webinar updating music-makers and their managers on all the work around the economics of streaming, with practical tips on how to utilise industry commitments on data, transparency, contract renegotiation and songwriter per diems. Info here.
Oslo memory
Look at Facebook reminding me about this adventure in Oslo back in 2018 courtesy of the Scandic hotels group. I successfully boycotted Scandic for seven years after this, though I did stay in one of their Aarhus hotels last year and it was all fine. My boycott of Luxair is still in force though, the worst airline in the world. Fortunately the need to fly Luxair doesn’t come up very often, so it’s quite easy to boycott.